THE LUSTY MEN (1952) B/W 113m dir: Nicholas Ray

w/Susan Hayward, Robert Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy, Arthur Hunnicutt, Frank Faylen, Walter Coy, Carol Nugent, Maria Hart, Lorna Thayer, Burt Mustin

Urged on by a ranchhand (Mitchum), a cowpoke (Kennedy) becomes a rodeo star, but the success goes to his head and his wife (Hayward) suffers.

From The Movie Guide: "Director Nicholas Ray was a master of the offbeat film, and this brilliant contemporary western, easily the best movie ever made about rodeo ..., is no exception. ... THE LUSTY MEN is full of action and dangerous stunts, photographed beautifully by master cinematographer Lee Garmes. Ray's direction is superb, and all three leads give bravura performances. Based on a Life magazine story by Claude Stanush, and coscripted by cowboy David Dortort, its screenplay presents classical situations, full of poetry and destiny. In his search for realism, Ray took his cameras on location, filming rodeos in Tucson, Arizona, Spokane, Washington, Pendleton, Oregon, and Livermore, California, using a host of real rodeo stars such as Gerald Roberts, Jerry Ambler, and Les Sanborn."